This wedding almost didn’t happen – twice! They were suppose to get married in January, then it was postponed until May and then it was postponed until this past Saturday when they finally tied the knot.
Janet and Tom are both wildlife, hunting type of people. Therefore, Janet didn’t know the first thing about flowers. That’s where I came in. I not only helped them plan their wedding, but for the first time, I also designed and assembled all the bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, posy balls for the Junior Bridesmaids and the centerpieces. I was very excited. I always wanted to try my hand at working with flowers and Janet and Tom gave me that chance. I showed them some pictures and they trusted me with what I would do. We went for that "wildflower" sort of look to go along with their wildlife personalities. We ordered the flowers from a local nursery and I assembled them all the day before the wedding. Whew!
Everything went as planned on the day of wedding until I was just about to start the processional when all of a sudden, the fire alarm went off. Unbelievable! As it happens, painters were working in another part of the building and the fumes set the alarm off. Fortunately, it only lasted a few minutes and the ceremony went off without a hitch after that.
Another unique aspect of the wedding was that one of Janet’s bridesmaids is wheelchair bound and uses a service dog. She and Tom decided that “Cooper” would be the ring bearer. I custom-made a dog bone ring pillow for him to carry in his mouth. When they walked up the aisle, Tom called Cooper to him and he took the “dog bone” out of his mouth. You could hear the guests say, “ahhh.”
As you can see from the flowers, Janet really loves purple and lavender. I used white tulle pew bows with lavender ribbon and rented purple sheer overlays for the reception tables. I used lilac ribbon to tie around the square vases for the centerpieces. Janet had purchased some lavender silk rose petals and said, “do something with these.” So I sprinkled some between the escort cards and the rest I scattered on the cake table.
The reception took place at the Holiday Inn Gaithersburg. Since Janet and Tom are into wildlife, I suggested instead of using the standard table numbers, to use pictures of different ducks with their names as the table assignments. That added a little fun to the reception as guests arrived trying to find their particular “duck” table.
About 15 minutes prior to the end of the reception, Janet and Tom sneaked out while guests continued to dance.
